Its red comb and open beak against the night.
Bible in art · Matthew
The Cock Crowed (Le coq chanta)
James Tissot · 1886–1894
Brooklyn Museum, New York
One of the strangest sheets in the series has no people in it at all. A rooster stands on top of a wall made of round clay pipes, against a night sky full of small stars.
Tissot painted it almost entirely in dark brown and black, with the red comb and a little light on the wall. The bird is caught at the moment it calls.
From the text
- “I do not know the man!” And immediately a rooster crowed (Matthew 26:74)
- “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times” (Matthew 26:75)
The artist’s own
- A wall built of round clay pipes
- The scene without Peter — only the bird
Details
The rooster
Its tail
Long dark tail feathers.
The wall
Rows of round clay pipes set in the wall.
Stars
Small stars in the black sky.
James Tissot, French, 1836–1902. Brooklyn Museum, New York (Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.250) · Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper · Brooklyn Museum (Commons file page, «Permission»): "This image was uploaded by the Brooklyn Museum as a content partnership, and is considered to have no known copyright restrictions by the institutions of the Brooklyn Museum." — "No known copyright restrictions".